Balloon expandable stents have been the mainstay in treating blockages in the iliac arteries for years. However, recent data suggests a change is in order. According to researchers who recently compared the two versions in a large group of patients being treated in northern Europe, found that self-expanding (SE) stents proved more effective and are recommended for patients with iliac stenosis. The study was published this week in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Endovascular stenting approaches, regardless, are still preferred to surgery and balloon angioplasty as a treatment of iliac lesions. The recent study just answers the question, “Which is the best type of stent to use?”

The Study

“The treatment of iliac artery occlusive disease with SE led to a decreased incidence of restenosis at 12 months and thus provided superior primary patency than the treatment with BE,” says Hans Krankenberg, study director.

Findings were based on data from 660 patients enrolled into a cohort study between August 2010 and June 2013 across 18 Swiss and German medical centers. Each selected patient had a diagnosis of peripheral artery disease with symptoms. The lesions, which did not extend into the aorta or common femoral artery grades 1 to 4 and a single external or common iliac artery lesion between 10mm and 200mm in length. The two treatment groups were matched in terms of the nature and symptoms of the targeted lesions and any co-morbidities, risk factors, and coexisting conditions.

Key Findings

The key finding indicated that restenosis occurred in around 6 percent of the patients treated with self-expanding stents compared to nearly 14 percent of the patients receiving balloon expanding stents.

BE Stents Still Have Their Place

The data clearly suggests that self-expanding stents provide a more favorable outcome for patients with blockages in both the common iliac and external iliac arteries. However, this doesn’t mean that they are the best choice for all patients. One area where balloon expanding stents are still favorable in treating vessels with more complicated anatomical features such as those with tortuous or twisted vessels. This may be due to the fact that the force created from the balloon has a straightening effect due to the sheer force.

Our strategy focuses on enabling our clients to recruit the right people for the structure in which they will perform. Please contact us to learn more about our expertise in Executive Search for Commercial Leadership positions in Medical Device and Biotechnology; including Marketing, Strategy, Sales Leadership, Training, Development, etc. We look forward to the opportunity to help you consistently improve your performance and your business!

There is no more difficult situation in your leadership and personal development journey than the moment you must face a personal mistake that has derailed your climb to the top. Failure becomes a defining moment — do you walk away from the issue, persevere, or look for a different path that may eventually lead you to the same goal? A genuine definition of success is intimately interwoven with our response to these situations.

Failing Doesn’t Always Mean FAILURE

Successful people universally look back upon their perceived failures as beneficial events. The learning process can be treacherous, painful, and seemingly impossible at times, but sticking to your goals through that process becomes the marker of the ultimately successful. People who succeed in business, personal relationships, and other areas of life are those who take the lessons of their failures and turn them into a positive. Can you really call it a failure if you have genuinely learned something from the experience? Or is it really just another step on the path that leads to your desired goal?

Rock bottom makes for a pretty solid foundation, but you can’t build much down there.

Most businesses will struggle and falter at some point. Most relationships will decay, dissolve, or break apart. It is impossible to go through life without experiencing a fall, a disappointment, or an unexpected result. And when you hit the proverbial bottom of the barrel there are only two choices — to stay at the bottom or to climb out again.

It is often tempting, especially in the initial hours and days, to just wallow at the bottom, to want to give up and just stay there. Climbing is hard, and the fall was painful. But success doesn’t come from the bottom. You have to find the will and courage to begin that climb again.

Successful people are the climbers that look ahead and remember what caused their fall in the first place. If you don’t learn, you will just end up on the bottom again.

Forgive Yourself, but Don’t Forget!

Always remember how it felt, but don’t allow yourself to wallow in self-recrimination — it isn’t productive. Failure never feels good, but that doesn’t mean it can’t do you good. Forgive yourself, and others, who may have brought you down, but always keep in mind how it happened. If one of your business partners was unable to fulfill their function, perhaps it is time to find a new partner or find a new responsibility for the existing partner that is better aligned to their talents and abilities. If you were so overwhelmed that you dropped the ball, perhaps learning to delegate and prioritize more efficiently is the key.

Real success is defined by our reactions to failure, both our own and the perceived failures of others. Those who stand up, brush themselves off, and keep climbing while maintaining the lessons of their past mistakes firmly in mind, will eventually become successful leaders in their businesses and personal lives.

Our strategy focuses on enabling our clients to recruit the right people for the structure in which they will perform. Please contact us to learn more about our expertise in Executive Search for Commercial Leadership positions in Medical Device and Biotechnology; including Marketing, Strategy, Sales Leadership, Training, Development, etc. We look forward to the opportunity to help you consistently improve your performance and your business!

Researchers in Denmark have once again proven the old adage that “seeing is believing.” The small study found when cardiac patients were shown images of their diseased arteries during follow-up, it influenced them to make significant and life-altering changes their diet and other habits.

Want to Help Your Patients Quit Smoking and Eat Better?

Nearly half of the participants who identified as regular smokers quit after seeing these harrowing images. Almost two-thirds were able to successfully stick to a prescribed heart healthy diet.

Most People are Visual Learners

You can talk ’til you’re blue in the face and many patients just won’t change. This could be due to the fact that most humans, around 65%, are visual learners. Perhaps showing patients their own calcified coronary arteries is a more effective way to stimulate change.

The Study

The small study included 355 patients diagnosed with hyperlipidemia referred for screening which included a CT scan of the coronary arteries and had been subsequently diagnosed with non-obstructive coronary artery disease. Of those, roughly half were shown pictures of their calcified coronary arteries during evaluations with nurses and doctors.

While some patients in the quit smoking and changed their eating habits after diagnosis — without seeing the images, there was a marked difference in the group who did see the images. In follow-up, researchers found 22% of people who had not seen their arteries kept smoking, versus 9% of those who’d seen the images, and 64% of people who had not seen scans of their arteries continued eating an unhealthy diet, as opposed to 44% of people who’d seen them.

“We found that patients who looked at images of their calcified coronary arteries were more likely to stop smoking, lose weight, eat a healthy diet, take recommended statins and reduce their plasma cholesterol levels,” said Rikke Elmose Mols, a PhD student in the Department of Cardiology at Aarhus University Hospital-Skejby in Denmark.

What this Means

The results of the study seem to suggest when we visualize our own health threats we are motivated to make changes to reduce our risk factors.

Our strategy focuses on enabling our clients to recruit the right people for the structure in which they will perform. Please contact us to learn more about our expertise in Executive Search for Commercial Leadership positions in Medical Device and Biotechnology; including Marketing, Strategy, Sales Leadership, Training, Development, etc. We look forward to the opportunity to help you consistently improve your performance and your business!

Summer is on its way; there are a million things you want to do, other than work. For anyone, from management to the C-suite, it can be difficult to stay motivated. After all, you are expected to motivate and encourage your team through their periods of demotivation. I’ve come up with a few ideas. They aren’t revolutionary, but I do hope you will find them —motivating.

Love Your Work

Loving your job is not only “nice-to-have”, rather it is essential to our overall well-being. After all, the workplace is the where we spend most our waking hours. Being unhappy at work leads to being unhappy at home, which is pervasive in our society. At some point in our lives, we have all worked at a job that we didn’t necessarily enjoy. It paid the bills and kept you busy but could you imagine spending the rest of your life there? Being at a job that you don’t love can not affect you both mentally and physically, and it can also impact the company that you work for.

Believe in What You Do

In today’s cynical world, it is a great feeling to believe that what you do is changing other’s lives for the better. Entire companies are founded on this principle alone. It is also one of the driving factors behind Millennial recruitment. The opportunity to do good doesn’t end at the office; studies show that companies who engage the community around them are growing at faster rates and enjoying higher job satisfaction scores than companies who are not as altruistic and involved.

Make People Proud

Be the kind of boss that your employees are proud to work for. Create a culture that your employees are proud to call their own. Also, find pride in your team. Acknowledge their contributions and let them know you are proud of their accomplishments, as well.

Focus on the Big Picture

When the day-to-day is too mundane or repetitive, it can be very demotivating. By focusing on the big picture goals you, your team, or your company have set, you can find the motivation you need to lead.

Staying motivated in today’s business environment can be difficult. Yes, there will always be times you’ll lose heart, get busy, or become tired. But when you take responsibility for motivating yourself and others, you are better able to lead, inspire, reach your goals and leave a mark. What is more motivating than that?

Our strategy focuses on enabling our clients to recruit the right people for the structure in which they will perform. Please contact us to learn more about our expertise in Executive Search for Commercial Leadership positions in Medical Device and Biotechnology; including Marketing, Strategy, Sales Leadership, Training, Development, etc. We look forward to the opportunity to help you consistently improve your performance and your business!

It turns out; our mothers may have been onto something when they said, “you are going to give me a heart attack.” Data from the Interheart study is supportive of the theory that you can significantly increase the risk of a cardiac event like AMI, simply by experiencing anger or emotional upset of any kind.

There has always been anecdotal evidence that suggests stress contributes to the onset of AMI. However, there has never been a study of note that sought to determine the range of emotions capable and to solidify once and for all that you can indeed “give yourself a heart attack.” Other questions posed in this study were whether extreme physical activity could also be a trigger for AMI in susceptible patients.

About the Study

The case-controlled global study evaluated data from 12,461 cases of patients diagnosed with their first AMI. Results were filtered for those patients who admitted experiencing a triggering event, not more than one hour before the onset of symptoms. The cases were then sorted into groups according to the emotional or exertional trigger. The findings were:

6% of AMI patients who had recently engaged in intense physical activity were at a 7.7% greater risk of AMI.

% were either angry or emotional showed an increase in cardiac events by 8.5%.

The overlapping group of patients experiencing both did show a further increased risk.

The study concluded with the determination that patients experiencing physical exertion, extreme emotional lability, or both exhibited a higher risk for first AMI, regardless of gender, race, age, or other effect modifiers.

Recommendations for the General Population

Since the study only included patients with a first AMI, it is important to apply the findings to the general population. The study author advises that going forward; doctors should inform their patients about the potential risk that emotional extremes pose. Patients should be urged to minimize exposure to emotional triggers and have solid strategies in place to help them cope more effectively with their anger, should it occur.

Our strategy focuses on enabling our clients to recruit the right people for the structure in which they will perform. Please contact us to learn more about our expertise in Executive Search for Commercial Leadership positions in Medical Device and Biotechnology; including Marketing, Strategy, Sales Leadership, Training, Development, etc. We look forward to the opportunity to help you consistently improve your performance and your business!

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